Label films with a matte, paper-like appearance are abundant in industry. Such labels can be printed with inks that are solvent-based, water-based, oxidizable, or cured with light or ionizing radiation. Matte films are disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 13/403,180 filed Feb. 23, 2012; US 2011/0083796; U.S. Pat. No. 6,703,141; US 2002/0182391; and WO 2012/039856. One especially demanding printing technology is used in the barcode label industry, which involves the use of heat to transfer an image from a ribbon to the substrate. Often a substrate for a thermal transfer ribbon (“TTR”) is produced with smooth polymeric substrate and subsequently coated with a relatively thick layer of aqueous coating containing inorganic fillers such as clay, calcium carbonate, and silica to give a matte appearance. These mineral-based filled coatings can be difficult and expensive to process in manufacturing due to their abrasiveness to the processing equipment.
Publications related to coatings include U.S. Pat. No. 6,297,328; U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,530; U.S. Pat. No. 5,525,662; U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,659; U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,121; U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,587; U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,473; U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,960; U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,123; U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,627; US 2011/0254909; and US 2007/0248810A1; and the data sheet for Epomin™ from Nippon Shokubai, 2011.